Tag Archives: State: New York

Reuters: In response to a recent ruling by the state’s high court, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo and state lawmakers have agreed to pass legislation that would outlaw the viewing of child pornography.

The city of Buffalo has consented to a court order issued Tuesday that prevents officials from kicking out a Christian man from this year’s Italian Festival as they did last year because he was speaking with attendees about his faith.

WWNTRadio: Former Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore (R) from Gallant announced that he and the Foundation for Moral Law legal organization in Montgomery, Alabama, have filed an amicus curiae brief in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit.

Weekly Standard: New York City councilman Charles Barron may be on his way to winning the Democratic nomination for Congress in New York’s Eighth District, despite a history of racist, anti-Semitic, and anti-Israel rhetoric. Barron, who has earned the support of retiring congressman Edolphus Towns, would be representing a district with a sizable Jewish population.

Wall Street Journal (AP): The judge said the law fails because it tries to re-examine states’ decisions concerning same-sex marriage. She said such a sweeping review interferes with a system of government that places matters at the core of the domestic relations law exclusively within the province of the states. | Windsor v. U.S. (E.D. NY)

Family Research Council: ADF Attorney Jordan Lorence disputed the other side’s claim that the city has an obligation to “keep worship out of school.” “It is discriminatory to punish churches,” he explained, especially since religious student groups are allowed to hold meetings in the same space. “I think [the city officials]… do not understand that the government should accommodate freedom of speech for religion. They view religions as something evil or bad that needs to be driven from the public schools. All we are asking is that we are treated the same as everybody else,” Lorence said.

Mirror of Justice: Bronx Household of Faith obtained a preliminary injunction and is now seeking a permanent injunction against New York City, which would stop the City from excluding Bronx Household and any other religious organization from equal access to public school facilities. [ADF not mentioned]

Jordan Lorence at the Speak Up Movement Church Blog: Bronx Household of Faith has filed a motion asking the District Court to grant a permanent injunction against the New York City Department of Education’s policy barring religious groups from conducting worship services in the public schools during nonschool hours. New York City is asking the Court to uphold the policy.

Alan Sears at TellADF: Few cases illustrate so clearly the lengths to which many in today’s legal culture will go to undermine your Christian heritage and religious liberties as one Alliance Defense Fund attorneys are currently appealing in Greece, New York.

Alliance Defense Fund Senior Counsel Jordan Lorence will be available for media interviews immediately following his oral argument in federal court Friday in favor of an order that would allow churches to continue meeting in New York City public school buildings on weekends.

Catholic World Report: If New York City is the abortion capital of America, it is also the contraceptive capital of America. Free or low-cost birth control is available through dozens of publicly-funded programs at more than 200 places throughout New York state, most of them in New York City and its suburbs.

CNSNews: New York State accounted for the biggest migration exodus of any state in the nation between 2000 and 2010, with 3.4 million residents leaving over that period, according to the Tax Foundation.

NY Post: A record 67,500 families have applied for the 14,600 seats available in the fall, according to estimates released yesterday by the New York City Charter School Center. The huge surge in demand means barely 1 in 5 students who applied was admitted.

Fred Mogul at NY Times (includes audio): Jordan Lorence, a lawyer who represents the churches, has argued that accommodating religious expression is very different from endorsing it. He said if the city was concerned about confusing students because their schools host worship services on Sundays — which the city has argued in court — then it should really worry about children who go to unmistakably Christian and Jewish buildings every school day. “Under their own criteria, those seem to be much more serious than what’s happening on the weekends,” said Mr. Lorence, a lawyer at the Alliance Defense Fund. “The school district is in the weird and strange and contradictory situation of: schools meeting in former church schools, O.K.; churches meeting in schools, not O.K. And I just don’t see a whole lot of difference there.”

Carl E. Olson at Catholic World Report: A “New York progressive” gives four reasons for opposing “gay marriage”
This line of argument needs to be repeated again and again, in various ways and through varying means. There are only a handful of institutions that keep the State in the its proper place, most notably the Church and the family. How strange, isn’t it, that both of those institutions are the targets of such open and direct assaults?

Fox News: The Alliance Defense Fund, an Arizona-based group that presses faith-based cases in courts nationwide, represented the town in court. It said it will appeal the ruling.
Joel Oster, senior counsel for ADF who argued the town’s case, called the ruling “highly inconsistent” with what the Supreme Court has said on the issue and said it means towns will have to “complete an obstacle course” before they can qualify to say a prayer before a meeting. “The town has no obligation to go outside of its borders as if it’s an affirmative action program,” he said.

Findlaw: “The court wants the town to be prayer monitors, to determine how many prayers in Jesus’ name are too many,” which would violate the Establishment Clause, the Alliance Defense Fund’s Joel Oster told Thomson Reuters News & Insight.

Federal News Radio: The Alliance Defense Fund, an Arizona-based group that presses faith-based cases in courts nationwide, represented the town in court. It said it will appeal the ruling. Joel Oster, senior counsel for ADF who argued the town’s case, called the ruling “highly inconsistent” with what the Supreme Court has said on the issue and said it means towns will have to “complete an obstacle course” before they can qualify to say a prayer before a meeting. “The town has no obligation to go outside of its borders as if it’s an affirmative action program,” he said.

Reuters: Joel Oster of the Alliance Defense Fund, which represents Greece, said the town was prepared to appeal the case as far as the Supreme Court. “The court wants the town to be prayer monitors, to determine how many prayers in Jesus’ name are too many,” he said. That outcome violates the Establishment Clause, he said. Oster pointed to a 2008 ruling by the 11th Circuit in Pelphrey v. Cobb County, Georgia, upholding a county commission’s opening prayer policy.| Galloway v. Town of Greece, No. 10-3635-cv

Reuters: The New York State Senate on Tuesday passed legislation to make it a crime to view child pornography on the Internet, as lawmakers rushed to close a loophole opened by a state appeals court just a week earlier.

One News Now: ADF attorney Nate Kellum says people of faith should not be threatened with arrest for peacefully expressing their beliefs. “The Constitution and court precedent in these types of cases is clear,” says Kellum. “Officials cannot toss someone out of a public event just because they don’t like the views he’s expressing . . . Exercising your constitutionally protected free-speech rights is not a crime,” says ADF attorney Jonathan Scruggs. “Threatening to arrest Christians simply because they choose to exercise those rights in a public place is a clear violation of the First Amendment.”

WGRZ.com (includes video): Watch Buffalo attorneys Michael Risman of Hodgson Russ and Steven Cohen of Hogan Willig debate the merits of this lawsuit in the video player above The Alliance Defense Fund is filing the suit on behalf of Gregory Owen. The ADF is a legal alliance of Christian attorneys that defend the right of people to freely live out their faith.

Findlaw: The State Assembly passed the legislation with overwhelming support, but it is currently sitting in the Senate Rules Committee. Supporters are trying to mobilize a floor vote before the end of the current legislative session.

Washington Times: In the wake of a New York court ruling that says it’s not illegal to “merely” view online child pornography, child advocates are urging Internet-savvy federal prosecutors to take over these kinds of cases as two state lawmakers rush to fix the law.

BuffaloNews.com (includes video): “People of faith shouldn’t be threatened with arrest for peacefully expressing their beliefs,” attorney Nate Kellum said in a written statement. “The Constitution and court precedent in these types of cases is clear: Officials cannot toss someone out of a public event simply because they don’t like the views he’s expressing. This is a classic example of free speech that the First Amendment protects.”

Reliigon Clause Blog: According to a press release from Alliance Defense Fund, a suit was filed in a New York federal district court last week on behalf of a Christian evangelist who wants to distribute Gospel tracts during the Buffalo (NY) annual Sorrento Cheese Italian Heritage Festival.

Wall Street Journal: Sen. James Alesi (ah-LEE’-see) of Monroe County said on cable television’s YNN Wednesday night that he expects a tough, costly primary and decided to step aside for the good of the Senate’s 32-30 majority.

Morality in Media: In response to the ruling of the New York Court of Appeals yesterday decriminalizing the purposeful viewing of child pornography on the Internet, Patrick Trueman, President of Morality in Media issued the following statement . . .

Reuters: Viewing child pornography on the Internet without taking further action such as printing or saving files does not necessarily constitute possession, NewYork’s top court ruled on Tuesday. | People v. Kent

Post Bulletin: Rochester Mayor Ardell Brede’s second attempt to install a period for prayer at the start of city council meetings was stopped short in the face of a higher power — a 6-1 council vote against it.

LoHud.com: In a party-line vote Monday night, the Westchester County Board of Legislators passed a bill creating a 25-foot buffer zone outside clinics that provide abortions to tighten penalties against protesters who harass patients.

UticaOD.com: Keeling’s fight appears to be a rare example of a young man seeking to take advantage of Title IX, a 40-year-old law enacted to provide women equal access to athletic opportunities. There are no boys’ high school field hockey teams anywhere on Long Island, or, for that matter, in most of the country.

Wall Street Journal: In 2010, New York became the last state in the country to pass a no-fault divorce law and eliminate the need for one partner to be held responsible for the end of the marriage . . . But as no-fault cases proceed through the courts, a handful of judges have interpreted the law differently, calling for trials to determine whether the marriage is “irretrievably broken.”

NY1.com (includes video): Would-be competitors in next year’s mayoral election joined forces at City Hall Wednesday to push for a state law that would expand abortion rights, to make late-term abortions legal not just when the mother’s life is threatened, but also when pregnancy prevents the mother from getting treating serious health problems.

Care2.com: The New York Assembly has for the fifth time passed a vital trans rights protections bill, moving the bill on to the Senate which has repeatedly allowed the bill to die. The bill, known as the Gender Expression Non-Discrimination Act (GENDA) . . .

NY Daily News: A 13-year-old who was disciplined by school officials for refusing to stand for the Pledge of Allegiance got a lesson in speedy liberty and justice for all Monday. In the morning, the American Civil Liberties Union sued in U.S. District Court in Pittsburgh. In the afternoon, Brownsville Area School District capitulated.

Religion Clause Blog: The Gloversville (NY) Leader-Herald reported Sunday that the Shrine of Our Lady of Martyrs has turned down a tourism grant from Montgomery County (NY) after the county’s Economic Development and Planning Committee voted to add a requirement that all tourism grant funds be used only for secular purposes.

NY Times: The Supreme Court on Monday refused to hear a challenge to the constitutionality of New York City’s rent regulations. As is customary, the court’s order gave no reasons, and there were no noted dissents.

Jordan Lorence at the Speak Up Movement Church Blog (includes video): People of all faiths and supporters of religious liberty will march across the Brooklyn Bridge Sunday, April 22 in support of equal access for religious groups to meet in empty NYC school buildings.

Reuters: Since being nominated to the bench by President Bill Clinton in 1995, U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff has earned a reputation for attention-grabbing rulings — from declaring the death penalty unconstitutional in 2002, to, more recently, challenging the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s settlements with Bank of America and Citigroup over financial-crisis-era toxic securities.

Bill Keller at the NY Times: And Republican leaders are delighted that gay donors — who might, in the wake of a defeat, have mounted jihad against the state’s Republicans — are instead contributing generously to save these four Republican seats. Each raised between $400,000 and $540,000 in the 10 months after the vote, mighty war chests for State Senate races. Discreetly, because local party officials resent being leaned on, state Republican leaders have tried to wave off strong challengers from filing in the Republican primaries of the four defectors.

NY Sen. Rubin Diaz: You should know that since Governor Andrew Cuomo pushed for gay marriage in the State of New York and convinced the Democratic Party in the Assembly and the Senate to follow his lead to legalize gay marriage, the Democratic Party in New York City has not won a single victory.

ReligiousLawNetwork.com: In a one-sentence simplistic summary, the Bronx Household of Faith (Church) wants to rent space in the public schools for Sunday meetings, and the New York City Board of Education (Board) wants to keep it—and other churches—out. This dispute has produced over an inch-thick sheaf of judicial opinions over the last ten years, learnedly discussing the intricacies of the clauses of the First Amendment

NY Times: Senator James S. Alesi, one of four New York State Republicans who voted in favor of same-sex marriage last year, is unlikely to receive the nomination of the main Republican committee in his district, setting the stage for a difficult re-election race that could have implications in the fight for control of the State Senate.

National Review: Today the Chiaroscuro Foundation released an interactive map illustrating the abortion ratio by zip code in New York City from 2000 to 2009. This is a continuation of our effort to raise awareness of the extremely high rate of abortion in New York City.

NY Daily News: Cardinal Dolan revealed for the first time that the Catholic Church was caught flat-footed on last year’s gay marriage vote in New York — insisting it was “burned” by Senate Republicans who claimed it didn’t have a prayer.

NY Daily News: Timothy Cardinal Dolan hit Albany for a round of lobbying on issues close to the heart of the Catholic Church, with those ranging from abortion to same-sex marriage. Per our Glenn Blain, Dolan also spoke at length about a subject arguably as controversial as either of those: The Child Victims Act, which would extend the statute of limitations in clergy sexual abuse cases.

Fox News: Members of an Islamic coalition stood in front of police headquarters with signs Monday to support the New York Police Department’s aggressive counterterrorism efforts, saying the agency is doing what is necessary to protect the city — and Muslims.

NY Magazine: Whereas, many legal degrees are no longer worth the paper they’re printed on; and whereas, the institutes issuing those J.D.’s might be inflating their job-placement rates; and whereas, a lot of unemployed graduates feel cheated out of the lives they thought they’d been promised; now, therefore, be it resolved: They had no choice but to sue.

Gothamist: The battle over religious groups using school property for services on the weekends has been raging since 1995—but really only in New York, since most other school districts don’t seem to mind the practice. “This is resurrection from the dead that is kind of amazing,” Jordan Lorence, senior counsel at the Alliance Defense Fund, the lawyer for the church that spearheaded the case, the Bronx Household of Faith, told the Times. “We are overjoyed; it gets it through the school year.”

AP: The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals issued a two-page order Wednesday that declined the city’s request to block a lower court judge who stopped the city from enforcing its no-worship-in-schools policy. | The order

NY Daily News: After four decades of death threats, picket lines and evictions, a leading women’s health crusader is set to open one of the state’s largest, licensed abortion clinics this week in southeast Queens.

Baptist Press Updated: “The city can’t single out religious expression and treat it worse than the expression of everybody else,” said ADF senior counsel Jordan Lorence. “The court’s order allows churches and other religious groups to meet in empty school buildings on weekends just as non-religious groups do while the lawsuit proceeds. The city’s view of the First Amendment is wrong, and we intend to continue to demonstrate that in court.”

One News Now: Churches that have been helping communities for years can once again offer the hope that empty buildings can’t,” reports ADF attorney Jordan Lorence. “The city can’t single out religious expression and treat it worse than the expression of everybody else.”

Latest Posts

Alliance Defending Freedom Litigation Counsel Catherine Glenn Foster: “American tax dollars should be used responsibly and for the common good, not wasted on Planned Parenthood’s irresponsibility and self-interest. No responsible economic policy includes bailouts for Planned Parenthood. Just last week, the GAO reported that our government sent $1.5 billion to Planned Parenthood over a three-year period. Through audits like this and reports like the one ADF has provided to Congress, Americans are learning more about the folly of funding Big Abortion.”

The New York Times: I know that I should say something about the backlash and debate over Indiana’s version of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, but it’s been hard to come up with something that I didn’t already say in my column when it was Arizona’s variation on the same law, vetoed under pressure, that was in the news. That column made the case that the only remaining question in the same-sex marriage “debate” was what kind of space, if any, an ascendant cultural liberalism would leave to Americans with traditional views on what constitutes a marriage; that the correlation of forces (corporate now as well as cultural and legal) was such that the choice of exactly how far to push and how much pluralism to permit would be almost entirely in the hands of liberals and supporters of same-sex marriage.

The Wall Street Journal (Access via Google): Last week I signed the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, known as RFRA, which ensures that Indiana law will respect religious freedom and apply the highest level of scrutiny to any state or local governmental action that infringes on people’s religious liberty. Unfortunately, the law has stirred a controversy and in recent days has been grossly misconstrued as a “license to discriminate.”